Oceanside's reclaimed water is kept in a reservoir before it is pumped to the Oceanside Municipal Golf Course or a bird sanctuary.

Charlie Neuman

Oceanside's reclaimed water is kept in a reservoir before it is pumped to the Oceanside Municipal Golf Course or a bird sanctuary.

Oceanside's reclaimed water is kept in a reservoir before it is pumped to the Oceanside Municipal Golf Course or a bird sanctuary. (Charlie Neuman)

On Oceanside’s 163-acre San Luis Rey wastewater treatment facility in the city’s north, stippled with rows of machinery, pipes and murky pools, two rectangular structures about two-stories high convert only 5 percent of the daily flow of wastewater into something that can be used again.

Oceanside water officials hope to someday treat 75 percent of the approximately 10 million gallons that flow into the plant each day to a level that it could be rerouted from an ocean outflow pipe to lawns and landscapes throughout the city. A recent partnership with other water agencies in North County, called the North County Regional Recycled Water Project, could help Oceanside, along with the rest of region, get there.

“The big idea is to interconnect North County for recycled water,” said Kimberly Thorner, Olivenhain Municipal Water District general manager, and also “to take a look at where are the needs for recycled water and where are the production capabilities.”

The plan involves changing how water and sewer agencies look at providing services. Rather than adhering strictly to district or city lines, the agencies would take inventory of where there is a supply of wastewater and a demand for reclaimed water, whether for irrigation or industrial uses.

For example, Thorner said, Olivenhain has substantial reclaimed water infrastructure in much of the district, but doesn’t have purple pipes running to the district’s northwest, where high demand exists. Leucadia Wastewater District has a plant closer to the potential reclaimed water customers, so it would be more cost effective to connect to that agency’s facility.

That team approach, the administrators hope, will help the water and sewer agencies be more efficient and make them strong candidates for grant funds at the state and federal levels.

Recycled water is wastewater that has been treated one step beyond the level of what is pumped into the ocean, and is safe to use for irrigation and is essentially a step away from potable. Reclaimed water pipes, hydrants and other components are typically purple to distinguish them from regular water infrastructure.

“It’s pretty exciting to be working with all these agencies,” said Oceanside Water Utilities Director Cari Dale. “Where we want to put in very expensive infrastructure, this sort of project just makes sense.”

Water or sewer departments participating include those in Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido and Vista as well as Olivenhain Water District, Vallecitos Water District, Rincon Water District, Santa Fe Irrigation District, Leucadia Wastewater District, San Elijo Joint Powers Authority and Camp Pendleton, though the military base’s participation varies from the others because of how it operates and is funded.

The group has received $1.5 million in state funding that will likely be used to conduct environmental and feasibility studies and possibly even for construction in some districts.

The collective goal is to increase recycled water use in North County by 4.9 billion gallons a year by 2020, which is expected to cost about $175 million. The agencies hope to get $20 million or more in federal grants for that phase, Thorner said.

Of the participating agencies already producing reclaimed water, Oceanside, North County’s largest city, produces the least per year and has perhaps the most room to grow, according to materials prepared by the group.

The city now treats reclaimed water with a pilot plant, faded purple pipes jutting from its walls, which was intended to be around for a few years but has been treating wastewater at the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility for about two decades. It produces up to 500,000 gallons of reclaimed water a day, which is stored in a reservoir on-site and pumped to the Oceanside Municipal Golf Course and the Whelan Lake bird sanctuary.